Italian Wedding Soup ~ page 49

Italian wedding soup actually got its name from the "marriage" of meat and greens, not as a romantic soup for a wedding. That is disappointing, isn't it! But it still tastes delicious. This soup is not as hard as it looks at first glance, but it does take a little hands-on time because of the tiny meatballs. I like to do the meatball step a day ahead if possible, then it all comes together fast.

There are some choices of what to put in this soup, depending on your preferences. I sometimes use these cannellini beans, sometimes I use canned Great Northern beans, and sometimes I leave the beans out all together. The same is true for the pasta. If you can find orzo pasta--looks like rice, but it is pasta--then use that, or just use any very, very small pasta, or you can skip the pasta. I tried out this chicken stock, but decided I didn't like the flavor of this brand very well. So make your own decision about your favorite stock or broth or bouillon that you like. My favorite is to just boil a chicken with some vegetables, and have homemade stock. That is always the first choice (if I have time) for great tasting soup.

Italian sausage comes in links and must be removed from its "casing" before mixing up with the ground beef and seasonings. You can also substitute ground turkey for the beef. The Italian sausage is important for its flavor though, so be sure to use it.

Now we are ready to make meatballs.

First I just glop a bit of the meat mixture off the tip of a spoon onto a plate.

Then I pick each blob up and roll it in my palms. These are about 1/2-inch diameter.

The recipe says to bake the meatballs for 20 minutes, but I just watch until they brown, which in my oven is more like 10 to 15 minutes. They will cook more in the soup. After removing from the oven, drain them on paper towels.

At this point you can refrigerate or freeze the little guys to use later, or proceed with the soup recipe.

Here are more options for you: the recipe calls for spinach, but after I bought my spinach, I remembered that I actually prefer kale in this recipe. Kale stays firmer than spinach does. So feel free to try both and find your favorite. Kale does take about 10 minutes to cook, however, and spinach cooks in less than 1 minute, so you have to add the kale much earlier than you do the spinach. Now here is your next choice: the Parmesan cheese is mixed with an egg to thicken the soup right at the end. This also is optional. You can skip this step if you prefer brothier soup. I like it both ways.

This is what kale looks like...You will need to slice it, then chop it up some. (As you see below, I made this recipe twice.)

Here is Italian wedding soup with no beans, no Parmesan, no egg, no spinach...just homemade chicken broth, the little meatballs, kale, and a few pieces of chicken I threw in as extras..and I used tiny little bow tie pastas.

And here is the recipe cooked just as it is stated in the cookbook. This version is much thicker. One more note, a correction, really, is that the amount of broth should be changed to 6 to 8 cups, rather than the 4 cups that is listed. That is just a guide. Use the amount of broth that makes the soup the way you like it. One last thing that I do if I have a lemon on hand, is serve lemon wedges to squeeze over each portion for a bright flavor boost.

This is one of my recipes that is still in process of being nailed down exactly, as you can tell! But I hope you will use these notes as a guideline to make a great Italian Wedding Soup that your family will enjoy. And don't worry, I have tried this all sorts of ways and we have liked it every time! You really can't mess this one up. It is a great marriage of flavors.